Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 6.6% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 6.6% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $657.86 and last traded at $653.69. Approximately 35,308,462 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 108% from the average session volume of 16,934,852 shares. The stock had previously closed at $613.48.

More Meta Platforms News

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Muse gains rapid adoption: Meta’s AI agent reportedly reached the No. 2 or No. 3 position on the U.S. App Store within days of its launch. Muse can connect with email, calendars, reservations and payments, strengthening the case that Meta is gaining traction in “agentic” AI. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US
• Positive Sentiment: New AI revenue opportunity: Muse includes free, $20-per-month and $100-per-month tiers, giving investors a clearer path to subscription revenue and potentially diversifying Meta’s advertising-heavy business model. Meta’s personal AI agent subscription plans
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade: JPMorgan raised Meta to Overweight from Neutral and lifted its price target to $820, citing the company’s frontier AI models and agents as sources of meaningful growth beyond advertising. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents
• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure optionality: Meta’s substantial compute investments could eventually support an AI infrastructure or cloud-computing business, although that opportunity is not yet reflected in revenue. Meta might be building AWS for AI compute
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta declared a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, payable September 28 to shareholders of record September 21. The dividend supports shareholder returns but has a modest annualized yield of about 0.3%. Meta announces quarterly cash dividend
• Negative Sentiment: Execution and privacy risks: Muse’s usefulness depends on access to users’ inboxes, accounts and potentially payment data, raising security, privacy and adoption concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: High AI spending: Meta’s large capital-expenditure commitments are pressuring free cash flow, increasing the risk that AI monetization will take longer than expected.
• Negative Sentiment: Talent and regulatory concerns: Star AI researcher Andrew Tulloch is leaving for Anthropic, while Meta is discussing teen social-media restrictions with South Korea. Internal resistance to an employee-screen-data program also highlights organizational and privacy challenges. Andrew Tulloch leaves Meta for Anthropic

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Friday. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $770.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $787.54.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $600.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $608.66. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.44, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.91%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 3,240 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.06, for a total transaction of $2,002,514.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 6,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,875,854.26. This represents a 34.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan Li sold 9,196 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.61, for a total transaction of $5,063,409.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,260,343.46. This trade represents a 41.09% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,581 shares of company stock valued at $24,506,695. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Advantage Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Philadelphia Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc develops technologies that help people connect, communicate and build communities online. The company’s principal products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and digital communication.

Meta generates most of its business through advertising displayed across its family of apps. It also develops artificial intelligence technologies, business messaging tools and hardware and software through its Reality Labs division, including Quest virtual- and mixed-reality devices and related experiences.

The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and was renamed Meta Platforms in 2021 to reflect its broader focus on building the metaverse.